Anyone who enjoys content created on the Internet has an obligation to pay the creator, and viewing ads is the best way to do so.
Advertising has always been a key feature of media since its rise into the public sphere. Without revenue from advertising, many media sources lack the ability to support themselves in any other way. This is especially true in the Internet age, where media sources or creators are not exclusively large corporations but small groups of individuals. New creators on the Internet lack the economic and personal capital necessary to keep themselves afloat without the use of daily revenue from advertising. In the creation of free Internet content, there is an understood contract between the viewer and creator in that most Internet content is free, but the viewer is forced to look at ads in lieu of monetary payment. The Internet tool Adblocker hurts this system and creators by removing the viewers’ part of free media consumption.
Using an ad-blocking browser extension could be seen in a similar vein to the fraud practice of the dine and dash in which you purchase food and then leave without paying. On the Internet, you consume the media created for public consumption and then leave without paying, but in the form of digital advertising. While there are some variance between these two actions, they both end in similar results.
In the Internet age,a major example of the modern content creation landscape is YouTube. Most of its creators are independent and lack the support of a large corporate organization to continue production without income from their video uploads. Through the use of an adblocker, independent creators lose out on their sustained revenue, if it is only a small impact per person. YouTube is a huge and growing platform that supports a wide variety of new producers. According to Omnicore, an agency that tracks online statistics, there were 30 million daily subscribers around January 2018. Each one of these subscribers spends an average of 40 minutes watching some form of YouTube content. Due to the average person’s extended time on YouTube, it is easy to see that it holds an important place in the lives of individuals. The role it plays is a large one and by stagnating growth through ad blockers, there is not only a loss to content creators but also to viewers. Viewers are hurt in the end by the loss of previously available content.
Ad blockers also hinder media diversity on the Internet. Everyone who has Internet access has the ability to create media. However, not everyone has access to the resources necessary to keep themselves afloat. By removing a source of income from smaller sources, viewers eventually produce a system where only large entities have the ability to make a living on Internet media content. The variety of content on Internet is based on the ability of different people across the globe to discuss what they enjoy or find important. The economic status of media on the Internet should be based on the ability to find an audience and a source of revenue.
If Internet media consumers want to continue the use of free media, there must be some sort of payment. The production of original media is not free or easy, so people should treat it as such. Through the use of ad blockers, we risk losing access to a variety of new forms of content due to the lack of financial feasibility. While certain forms of advertising may be annoying, one must accept it as a necessary burden for the creation of media content online.
Adblockers can be a major inhibitor to certain sources of revenue for content creators. graphic by Conner Maggio
